SenzaGen’s co-founder, Professor Malin Lindstedt, has been awarded the Nytänkaren 2017 (Innovative Thinker 2017) Prize and SEK 400,000 by the Swedish fundation for Research Without Animal Experiments for her work on the development of animal-free testing methods. The prize was awarded today, 16 October at a ceremony at Research Without Animal Experiments offices in Stockholm.

Professor Malin Lindstedt receives the prize for her successful development of advanced testing methods that can reduce and replace the use of animals in the risk assessment of chemicals and consumer products. Malin Lindstedt works at Lund University’s Department of Immunotechnology, where she has directed the research that lies behind the series of allergy tests based on cell-based gene analysis that are now marketed under the name GARD. Under her direction, a research team started by developing a test for skin allergies. They then went on to develop a test to determine which substances can cause respiratory allergies, and most recently a test that can analyze proteins associated with food allergies.

While working on the development of the technology behind GARD, Malin Lindstedt founded SenzaGen, the company which is now responsible for making this technology available on the global market. The first test to be developed, GARDskin, is already seeing limited use. GARDskin is at the present time undergoing a validation process for inclusion in the OECD Chemical Test Guidelines, which would result in the method achieving its international breakthrough as an eligible method that meets regulatory requirements for the risk assessment of chemicals.

The prize from Research Without Animal Experiments highlights the practicability of using advanced methods to continue to reduce and replace the use of animals in the risk assessment of chemicals and consumer products both inside and outside Sweden. With the NYTÄNKAREN prize and its associated funding, Research Without Animal Experiments wishes particularly to support the research team’s ambitions to continue their development of allergy tests.

News about the prize can be viewed on the Research Without Animal Experiments website: